Tag: Medical

If you’ve been following my long and somewhat ridiculous health journey on social media, on Living with Spunk, or in real life, then you know that I haven’t had an exact answer for what’s been going on with my health and heart since late January. Well, big news!!! I have an answer now!!

After seeing a cardiologist in one of the most popular and most recommended clinics in Charlotte, I was feeling incredibly discouraged. The doctor (I’m not bashing individuals so I’m not naming names- contact me if you need to know for personal reasons) seemed annoyed at our consultation, rolling his eyes a few times throughout the appointment, ignoring me when I started to faint during his examination (wtf), and just seeming so unconcerned through the whole process. I was told to wear an event monitor, which is a small heart monitor that you take home with a button to press when you feel an episode coming on. I wore the monitor for two weeks, and then sent it through the mail back to the clinic. Well four weeks came and went and I still hadn’t received any kind of call about my results. I called the clinic and was told that the doctor was uninterested in scheduling a follow-up appointment because he didn’t think it was necessary, as my results weren’t too abnormal.

My family was blown away by how we had been treated at this “renowned” clinic.

We went to my primary care doctor and told him exactly what happened and he sent us to another clinic in the Charlotte area.

Well, I went to the new cardiologist yesterday and after months of waiting for a diagnosis, an explanation, etc. I finally got one.

This doctor explained everything in detail, went over medication options, and lifestyle changes. I have Inappropriate Sinus Tachycardia. According to the doctor, my heart is reacting in a way that a typical heart would react when you are being poked with needles repeatedly. It’s racing but not in a dangerous way that could cause me any harm or long-term medical issues. This type of tachycardia is common in women my age, and could be lifelong or just last a matter of weeks. It could stay or go in a matter of time. My heart itself isn’t causing this issue, it’s something sending signals to my heart. However, we still aren’t sure what; that’s part of this diagnosis. It could be my PCOS (Poly-Cystic Ovary Syndrome), it could be that I’m overproducing adrenaline (waiting on test results), or that I had mono in the past and didn’t know it. It could honestly be anything. But basically, I can live my life. It isn’t threatening.

Through this whole thing I’ve been stopping myself from enjoying things that I used to.

Should I travel for the weekend? Well not if we don’t know what’s up with my heart, like what if I need my doctor?

Should I go to the mall? Well if I faint or something, it could be really bad since we don’t know why.

The cardiologist told me to live my life. He told me to stop avoiding things out of fear, because I didn’t have answers and now I do.

I have answers.

Finally.

I still have a stress test to do before I’m completely out of the dark when it comes to the tachycardia, but I’ve already been told I can live life normally until then. The stress test will show how high my heart rate gets when I exercise, just to make sure that I can exercise without hurting myself of causing any kind of major distress.

I’m just so excited to get back to normal, and now that I know I can still do everything I did before the tachycardia started, there’s nothing really holding me back.